Sri Lanka tea plantation workers defy lockdown to mourn union chief

COLOMBO: Tens of thousands of tea plantation workers defied Sri Lanka's coronavirus lockdown and threats from authorities Sunday to attend the cremation of a popular trade union leader. Television footage showed mourners weeping and jostling as they bid goodbye to Arumugam Thondaman, head of the Ceylon Workers' Congress who died of a heart attack Tuesday aged 55, with few wearing masks or observing social distancing. Authorities had reimposed a lockdown on the island to forestall a large gathering for the cremation of Thondaman - who was also a government minister - in Norwood, a tea-growing area in central Sri Lanka.